Educational Games You Remember Liking

[Mezahmay]

I watched a video earlier about what games, if properly crafted, could do to update the learning process of tomorrow's youth. It got me thinking about educational games I remember playing growing up and actually enjoying.

For example, in first grade I remember playing Word Munchers Deluxe on the 90s Macintosh computers in my elementary school's computer lab. The mechanics were pretty simple: you moved this green guy around on a checkerboard munching words that matched the type of word that the prompt wanted you to find, like nouns, verbs, contractions I think, etc. It was a game I enjoyed so much at the time I shoplifted a copy from the Comp USA in town but getting busted when I asked my dad for help installing it on our home computer.

There were other games out there, like this side-scrolling game that was set in ancient temples and ruins that you had to solve using logic puzzles and finding numbers and operation symbols as keys to open doors. I also remember Math Blaster, which I was pretty good at. Hell even the program they had in high school that I learned to type on did a pretty good job of gamifying learning how to type on a QWERTY keyboard without looking or feeling immature.


Anyway, just thought I'd ask the Escapist community if they remember any education games they enjoyed while growing up. The reminiscing made me feel a bit less stressed from work and maybe it will do the same for someone else.

 

[Brain Tumor]

Honestly, I enjoyed Mario is Missing on the SNES back in the day. I liked seeing the Sistine Chapel among other things. Also, I used to love the Math Blaster games. I also remember a sidescrolling paper airplane games where you would utilize currents from vents to get to the "goal."

 

[FutureExile]

Oregon Trail. Dying of dysentery was kind of fun at the time, although a little ghoulish in retrospect. I think it might have been the first commercially successful educational software. I was told by a teacher I know that they still make versions of this game.

 

[Mezahmay]

Oregon Trail. Dying of dysentery was kind of fun at the time, although a little ghoulish in retrospect. I think it might have been the first commercially successful educational software. I was told by a teacher I know that they still make versions of this game.

Hmm...good point. I never really thought about Oregon Trail as an educational experience, but I can definitely see that. Historical context, resource management, etc.

 

[Muspelheim]

I remember playing Pyramid: Challenge of the Pharaoh's Dream when I was a kid. It wasn't half bad, as far as educational point & click-games go. You solve puzzles to help the Pharao build his pyramid and learn historical facts about Ancient Egypt as you go.

Although I mainly remember getting stuck at places. That and making beer, trading for spices and then trading for jewels. I wanted to see if I couldn't just bribe my way past the stodgy bits.

There was this fat bargeman sod that had "grown attached" to the stones he was ferrying over for the pyramid construction. He would only give up the delivery if you beat him at the Kemethian boardgame he tried to teach. After five losses due to unlucky dice (well, sticks), I just wanted to tip over the table and shout "Either you give me the stones like you were supposed to, or I'll have the Pharao stake you for delaying the construction!!"

Anubis was a bit of a dick, too.

 

[FPLOON]

Well, there was the Reader Rabbit games, particularly 2nd Grade for me since not only was it the only game I played from that series, but also remembering a "glitch" where I could "speedrun" through the game in less than 10 minutes...

There was also that Jump Start Typing game where you could legitimately "press square to win" when it came to the main objective of unlocking some kind of layered/colored cage that was holding this scientist or something like that... I don't know...

Other than that, besides Oregon Trails, I remember playing these interactive book demos on an old Mac computer at the childcare center I went to when my mom was at work and those never got old after playing them for the umpteenth time... Also, that same Mac computer had Lemmings on it and that taught me to think outside the box when it came to sacrificing your men Lemmings for the greater good, given how it was technically a strategy game...

 

[immortalfrieza]

Oregon Trail. Dying of dysentery was kind of fun at the time, although a little ghoulish in retrospect. I think it might have been the first commercially successful educational software. I was told by a teacher I know that they still make versions of this game.

That's also the first one that came to mind.

There was also this game I can't remember the name of that I remember really enjoying back in elementary school, it involved choosing a fish to play as and getting as many points as possible surviving by eating prey and running away from predators, at least that's the part of it I actually remember.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Damn, sort of ninja'ed by the OP on this one. I absolutely LOVED Word Muncher in elementary school, except for me it was the original version. Number Muncher was pretty cool too, but Word Muncher was the best.

And, of course, the Carmen Sandiago games. Those were so fun.

 

[Stephen Wo]

I used to play Yukon Trail. That was cool because I lived 20 minutes out from Jack London Square

Also, anybody play the Super Solvers/Super Seekers games from The Learning Company? That shit was my jam! I loved OutNumbered! and Treasure Mountain! But Gizmos & Gadgets! was the coolest by far.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

I fondly remember playing Treasure Mountain and Treasure Cove as a kid.
But not Treasure MathStorm. Treasure MathStorm can go fuck itself.

 

[Lanithro]

We used to (very occasionally) be allowed on the computers in maths in secondary school. The only games we were allowed to play were either Maths Blaster or Lemon Stand. Both fairly fun I suppose

 

[keniakittykat]

I don't really remember the names, but there were some educational point-and-click games on the cd-i that were pretty fun.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Does Typing Of The Dead count as educational? If so, that. It did do a pretty good job on my typing skills.

 

[Padwolf]

The Magic School Bus for the PC. I thought it was great when I was growing up. It was a lot of fun, I was taught about dinosaurs. It was great. Until that stupid dumb dice game that's on there that would screw me over at every single damn turn. :'( That AI really got the better of me. That, and the RNG gods.

 

[Shinsei-J]

While I didn't play many inherently educational games as a kid I did learn to read on Pokemon and Final Fantasy.
Most of the actual educational games I played were just badly designed and unfun to the point that I can't remember them but I remember not liking them and explaining why they're bad to my mum.
I'm kind of jealous of everyone else's experiences now.

 

[the doom cannon]

I remember playing gizmos and gadgets as a kid. It was my favorite thing ever to do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmos_%26_Gadgets!
Also there was some typing game I played in like 1st to 4th grade that was cool

 

[Ihrgoth]

Reading Rabbit, Carmen Sandiego (damn those games were good... and if they get a digital release I would play the crap out of them again), and math blaster. So many good memories of those games.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago was a favorite of mine. Every time we got the location right and the thief animation played across the screen, we were super excited. I remember my classmate and I would play that game every time we went to the computer lab. And it saved our progress, so one day we narrowed it down to Carmen herself. We were so excited that we were going to beat the game the next time we went to the computer lab.
Sadly, we never went back. Not sure what happened, but we never returned to the computer lab for the rest of the year. To this day I still feel sad about it sometimes.

I also enjoyed The Magic School Bus games (the one set in space was a favorite), and this other weird game series. You either learned math or spelling, and you had this remote control. You walked around an abandoned T.V/radio station and you had to get enough power to turn everything back on by getting questions right. I cannot remember the name of it though.

 

[FPLOON]

The Magic School Bus for the PC. I thought it was great when I was growing up. It was a lot of fun, I was taught about dinosaurs. It was great. Until that stupid dumb dice game that's on there that would screw me over at every single damn turn. :'( That AI really got the better of me. That, and the RNG gods.

Oh my glob! I both loved and hated that dumb dice game... Sure, it had that cheesy Dino-host dishing out the commentary throughout, but those dice were loaded as fuck, I tells ya!

There was also that Magic School Bus Rock Explorer game where if you found all of the "important rocks" that get turned into various "everyday" items, then you got this digital certificate you could print out to prove that you're a "Certified Rock Hound"... (It also taught me how much I will "soon" love volcanoes...)